Having put everything back where it belonged, Ed spent the time organising everything else she touched so that the family wouldn’t notice anything out of the ordinary. It didn’t take long at all. All he had to do was send some threads up to close the window and rearrange the dresser drawers that Belle had looked through.

Speaking of Belle, he picked her up off the ground after he was done with everything and carried her through the door. Stepping back into the room, he put her down in her chair. I wonder if their rooms are all connected to mine? Guess I’ll have to wait until tomorrow to find that out.

Time to collect the streamer next. He hoped that it was a decent time to get her and she wasn’t streaming.

~

“Phew.” She threw her headphones onto the desk as the red light on her webcam stopped blinking, telling her that the stream was over. Following her usual routine, she pulled up the VOD and started watching it, checking for anything she could improve on and seeing what people were saying.

She had just started playing a new game, so she wanted to see how everyone was feeling about it and whether she could turn it into a series or if she would have to switch to something else. It was a new indie horror game about some obscure myth, and while the graphics weren’t anything stellar, but the story and atmosphere was interesting enough.

She heard the door open behind her and assumed it was just her mother telling her to go to bed, so she turned everything off. Looking at herself through the black, slightly reflective screen, she saw something behind her that she shouldn’t have.

A figure was standing in the doorway behind her. Tall and lanky, the figure looked like no one she knew. A veil of darkness shadowed their features, with only the thin outline of the figure visible in the reflection of the darkened room.

Countless thoughts raced through her mind as she thought back to all of the horror games she played and movies she had seen. The classic horror trope of something appearing behind you when you look in the mirror.

She was already thinking of how to escape. Would she be able to run past the figure and through the door? Or would she have to escape through the window? She reached under her desk for the baseball bat she owned for self-defence. Just in case.

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She rubbed her eyes, hoping to look back and see that the figure was gone. Maybe that game got to me more than I thought? The figure was still there, waiting patiently behind her. She turned around to face the figure, hoping she had just spooked herself playing that game.

“I hope I’m not bothering you.” The words travelled through the air, initially in both English and Japanese, before collapsing into the language she was more comfortable with by the end of the sentence.

She didn’t know how to respond to the thing that was somehow speaking two languages at once. She just stared at the figure in silence, waiting for it to continue.

“I’m sorry, but you’re going to have to come with me Masami.” Ed stepped forward, closing the door and switching the light on so that she could see him clearly. The tension in her body melted away slightly at the fact that he was a human, but she was still noticeably wary of him, clutching at her bat tightly.

“How did you get in my house? Did you do something to my parents?” she asked defensively. If he had done anything to them, she wouldn’t hesitate about hitting him with the bat.

He held his hands up innocently, “They’re fine. I’m only here for you. If you want, you can say goodbye to them, my boss should be fine with that.”

“Why should I? I’m not going anywhere.” She had stood up now, and was preparing to hit him with the bat.

Ed sighed. “Sadly, that’s not an option. My boss has chosen you. Either you come with me willingly, or I’ll have to take you back by force. You don’t have a choice in this, but you do get a say in how it happens.” He looked at her with a bit of sadness in his eyes, but quickly hid his emotions when he saw the bat swinging at his face.

He reached out and caught the bat with ease, stopping it like it was a pillow swung by a small child. His threads wrapped around it, stopping her from pulling the bat back with her as she recoiled in fear.

He let go, letting the bat drop to the ground. “I’ll give you one more chance to say goodbye to your family.” He stepped aside, leaving the exit wide open for her.

She hurriedly escaped through the door the instant he let her, her body shaking in fear as she walked past him.

An hour passed as Ed waited patiently for her to finish talking with her parents. He was listening in on their conversation and was surprised by her quick thinking. She had managed to hide her fear and come up with a reason for why she had to leave on such short notice.

She said she was going on a trip to gather research material for her new game, and her parents seemed to buy it. It seemed this was something she did on a regular basis, so they were used to it.

Ed played along, helping her pack a bag while she was talking. She walked back into the room, her composure breaking as she looked at him. “I hope you’re ready.” He tossed her bag to her and pushed the door open, showing a room that wasn’t the hallway to her bedroom.

She was stunned by this sight, rubbing her eyes once again in disbelief. He brought her to the chair, told her to sit down, and to rest, before he disappeared through the door they came through.